


Stronger than you Thought

by RebaK1tten



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-25
Updated: 2013-11-25
Packaged: 2018-01-02 14:41:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1057996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RebaK1tten/pseuds/RebaK1tten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aaron and Spencer leaving DC after the zombies take over.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stronger than you Thought

 

Of course the world won’t be the same again.  Aaron knows that.  You’d have to be in complete denial to think otherwise.

They are on day 48 of the zombie apocalypse.   Oh, excuse me -- the government doesn’t like it called that.  Officially, it was called “The Corpse Virus” or even more insultingly, “The Corpse Issue.”  Yes, when corpses get up and chew on people, Aaron considers that an issue.

Aaron thinks of the years he spent working for the government.  They weren’t wasted; stopping serial killers could never be considered a waste.   But he thinks that for his years of service, for all their years of service, maybe some honesty at the start of this mess would have been appropriate.

As it was, he learned about the extent of the outbreak from Dave, who was in England visiting Emily.  The news reports frightened both of them, and they called Aaron to see if it was really true.  At this point, the news officially released in the states was vague and reports referred to “isolated incidents” and “drug fueled rages.”  Dave and Emily told Aaron what was being reported there, including the possibility of closing all air traffic in and out of the country.  

A few days later, JJ came to him with more information she heard from the State Department.   Aaron thought it might be over-reacting, but after losing Haley, he wasn’t willing to risk Jack, too.  He agreed to send Jack away with JJ, Will and Henry, to some friends of Will’s in Maine.   Aaron tried to talk Spencer into going as well, pointing out that Jack would feel safer with him there.  Spencer refused, pointing out that Will and JJ can protect Jack and he wants to stay with Aaron.

After that, things went to hell pretty quickly.  The government was unable to stop the panic when citizens realized what was happening, and how the government had lied to them.  People fell ill with flu-like symptoms, died within a week, then became flesh eating zombies.  Just like in the movies, but a lot less entertaining.  Most countries did indeed shut their borders.  Some infected US citizens got across the Canadian border, and now their border was secured, with those attempting illegal entry shot on sight.   The outbreak was limited – at least so far – to North America.

Spencer was quiet when it was announced the Rockies were the dividing line for the military, and they’d basically given up on everything west of them.  But that was too little, too late.  Really everything was too little, too late.  Soldiers weren’t ready to shoot someone who looked like their Grandma.  Old ladies shuffling towards them, and then biting them, instead of offering cookies.  After that, there were instances of soldiers killing people who were obviously not infected.  It took a while to train the military to recognize zombies and how to kill them.  The younger soldiers, raised on movies and video games, were actually better at this war; they grew up knowing that you had to get a head shot to kill the undead.

Aaron expected when they lost Morgan would be when Spencer goes over the edge.  They were driving back from a supply pick-up at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, barely outside of DC when the zombies swarmed their car.  They had weapons, but Morgan was pulled from the car before either of them could react.  Spencer shot as many as he could, but he couldn’t help Morgan; he couldn’t get to him before he was torn apart.  Aaron was going from his usual general worry to panic when they were gone an hour longer than expected.  He finally found Spencer in the parking garage, staring glassy eyed, blood on his shirt.

Spencer hasn’t talked about that or his mother almost certainly being dead.  But then again, Aaron doesn’t talk about not being able to contact his brother in New York.  There isn’t time to think about the loss of individual family members or friends, they operate in survival mode.

For now, they’re holed up in the FBI building in Quantico, along with marines and NCIS agents from the base.  The facility is large, and they have it well secured.  Everyone is on the top two floors and agents or marines are keeping guard constantly.   Aaron estimates the office is only about twenty-five percent full.  The other people either left early on, were deployed to other sites or were killed – possibly killed twice.

Spencer has been volunteering to take extra guard shifts.  Aaron didn’t like it at first, but there’s really not a lot he can say about it.  There’s various guard stations around the building, none at ground level.  He’s with other people and he’s a very good shot.  A very, very good shot.   Aaron isn’t usually on duty at the same time, but he knows that Spencer sits very quietly by the edge of the roof and whenever any of the zombies approach, he methodically picks them off, one by one.  Aaron hasn’t seen it, but a couple of people have reported each time he hits one, he says “Buh-bye,” reminding Aaron of a deranged flight attendant saying good-bye to passengers leaving a plane.

Aaron knows that his leadership skills are valued, he appreciates and expects that, but right now, it’s Spencer and his giant brain that’s needed.  They’re in contact with the CDC and other agencies and their instructions are to get to Fort Bragg to the military base there.  It’s supposed to be safe and a special CDC team has been moved there.

It’s just over 300 miles, normally not more than 5 hours.   But with abandoned cars and other obstacles, Aaron isn’t sure how long the drive will take.  Garcia has been working for hours on the route they’ll take.  Everything is set up in her system, GPS tracking, military tracking and every other tracking that can be set up.  They know exactly what roads they’ll take, what to avoid and how to get instructions for alternate routes. 

When it’s time to go, it’s just the three of them.  Garcia goes into the back seat and puts her head down, both to sleep and to avoid seeing what’s outside the car.  Everything is set, and unless there’s an emergency, her work is done. 

Aaron drives away from what’s become their safety zone.  They’re only a few minutes off the base when they see a group of six zombies surrounding a corpse.  From the looks of it, he won’t regenerate, there’s not going to be enough left.  They’re too far away to be a threat and they can’t waste ammunition on them, so Spencer just looks at them and makes a gun with his fingers and whispers “pow, pow, pow.”

“Did you ever see the Hitchcock movie, The Birds?” Spencer asks, still looking out the window.

“I think so, a long time ago, probably in college,” Aaron replies.  He remembers seeing it in the local college theatre with Haley.  She hid her face against his chest and slapped at his arm when he used the opportunity to cop a feel.

They drive past a group of soldiers burying bodies.  While tedious and dangerous being out in the open, it’s been determined that they need to do this to ensure there’s no outbreak of simple things like cholera.  The bodies need to be buried since they don’t know if the virus would be spread in the smoke if the bodies were burned.

“I saw it with my parents, I’m sure I was too young.  I asked them how it ended, did they get out, were they safe at the end.  My father told me that they got to San Francisco and were rescued and everything ended up fine.  I don’t think I believed him, but it was what I wanted to hear.”  Spencer smiles at Aaron and twines their fingers together.

“What did your mom say?” Aaron asks.

“She told my dad that I’m not stupid and don’t treat me like a child,” Spencer says with a hollow chuckle.   They’re about to enter a freeway, the first of many.  There are some cars on the road, moving around the ones that are stopped or abandoned.   Some zombies are by the on-ramp and they avoid them and blend into the slow moving traffic.  If they can keep this speed and don’t hit any unforeseen problems, their drive is probably about ten hours.

“You can nap, if you want.   I’ll wake you up if there’s a problem,” Aaron says, pulling his hand back so he can steer easier.  He puts Spencer’s hand on his thigh for the contact.

“Maybe, when we’re a bit farther along.  I don’t know if we’ll ever see this city again, you know?” he squeezes Aaron’s thigh gently and they drive along silently, with just snippets of conversation from the army radio in the background.

“Do you think we’ll get there?  And everything will end up fine?” Spencer finally asks.

Aaron glances over at Spencer.  He’s been so strong and matter-of-fact.  “Yes.  We’ll get there.  But we’re doing the rescuing and everything will turn out fine.”

Spencer nods and shuts his eyes, scooching down in the seat.  “I believe you, Aaron.”

 


End file.
